The invention relates generally to medical devices for retrieving material from within a body. More particularly, the invention relates to medical retrieval baskets that have atraumatic distal ends that are contoured or tipless both to minimize the chances of damage to tissue during use and to enhance the ability of the basket to capture material (e.g., stones) disposed or lodged in xe2x80x9cpocketsxe2x80x9d or other areas that are difficult to access in the body.
Known stone retrieval devices typically have baskets that are constructed by joining multiple legs together at a base of the basket and at a distal end or tip of the basket such that a xe2x80x9ccagexe2x80x9d is formed. At the distal tip, the individual legs are joined by soldering, adhesives, etc. such that a protruding tip results. This protrusion or outward projection at the distal end of the basket can poke tissue and cause tissue trauma. In general, the tips or ends of known baskets protrude outward and thus can cause damage by poking or piercing tissue. Also, the protruding tips of known baskets generally do not permit access to or intimate contact with certain areas within the body such as xe2x80x9cpockets,xe2x80x9d and thus stones residing in such areas are difficult or impossible to retrieve with known baskets.
It is an object of the invention to provide a medical retrieval basket that does not have a substantially protruding distal basket end or basket tip. That is, a basket according to the invention is atraumatic and does not have any significant distal protrusion or outward projection that can poke tissue, pierce tissue, or otherwise cause trauma to tissue.
It is another object of the invention to provide a medical retrieval basket that permits access to and/or intimate contact with certain areas within the body such as xe2x80x9cpocketsxe2x80x9d where material to be retrieved (e.g., stones) might reside or be lodged, impacted, or embedded. A tipless or contoured tip basket arrangement can access these areas and retrieve material from those areas whereas a conventional basket with a traumatic tip would not be able to do so because of the traumatic protruding tip that prevents intimate contact between the distal end of the basket and body tissue.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method of using such baskets to retrieve material from within a body. The material can be biological or foreign matter. The material can be, for example, urological stones or any of a variety of other types of material found in the body.
A basket according to the invention is formed by a plurality of wires, each wire forming a loop. Thus, the basket according to the invention is tipless and atraumatic, and lacks a protruding distal tip.
The invention generally relates to a medical retrieval device. The device comprises a sheath, a handle, and an atraumatic basket. The sheath has a proximal end and a distal end. The handle is located at the proximal end of the sheath. The basket can remove material from a body, and it is moveable between a collapsed position when the basket is enclosed within the sheath and an expanded position when the basket is extended from the distal end of the sheath. The basket has four or more legs (e.g., six, or eight legs). At least a distal end portion of the atraumatic basket is tipless and formed by a plurality of wires, each wire forming a loop. The apex of each of the loops is positioned at the distal end of the basket. The ends of each loop are attached to one another at the basket base or to an elongated member. The loops are unattached and freely moveable at the distal end of the basket.
The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description and from the claims.